The problem with having divergent passions is that it is hard to focus on one for any good length of time. Obviously, writing and digital photography are two of my passions, but another is wine. My partner and I started getting into this wondrous world in 2009, and it has grown, especially for me. We ended up getting a wine cellar (refrigeration unit specifically for storing wine) and have collected a nice bunch of fine wine over the past three years. We went to Burgundy for our 10th anniversary in 2010 and took a wonderful wine tasting/education tour run by a very sweet british couple you live in the area. Our appreciation of the intricacies of wine from growing to drinking dramatically increased. So much so, that I signed up for a 'Master Wine Class' at an American university's Tokyo campus.
So, I was thinking how to combine the two. Writing weird fiction and wine don't make an obvious pairing like a sink-your-teeth-into Syrah from Hermitage and a thick juicy mega portobello mushroom 'steak' (I'm vegetarian, so it comes closest to a beef steak). But it just takes a bit of imagination and the two can work. Anything can work when 'weird' is the keyword.
I was thinking about some of the names of the grapes (varietals) used in whine. There are hundreds actually. Some of them stir up bizarre images in my mind. For example, the grape 'Mourvedre' just sounds so cool and menacing. I got to thinking what kind of micro story I could build around that name and/or grape. There are so many of these names that just sound, well, weird to an English speaker. Thankfully England was never a big producer of wine back when wine making was young, so we have all these French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Greek, Croatian, etc.. names to play with. So this may become a new section under 'Urbanweird Cities' in the very near future.
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The problem with having divergent passions is that it is hard to focus on one for any good length of time. Obviously, writing and digital photography are two of my passions, but another is wine. My partner and I started getting into this wondrous world in 2009, and it has grown, especially for me. We ended up getting a wine cellar (refrigeration unit specifically for storing wine) and have collected a nice bunch of fine wine over the past three years. We went to Burgundy for our 10th anniversary in 2010 and took a wonderful wine tasting/education tour run by a very sweet british couple you live in the area. Our appreciation of the intricacies of wine from growing to drinking dramatically increased. So much so, that I signed up for a 'Master Wine Class' at an American university's Tokyo campus.
So, I was thinking how to combine the two. Writing weird fiction and wine don't make an obvious pairing like a sink-your-teeth-into Syrah from Hermitage and a thick juicy mega portobello mushroom 'steak' (I'm vegetarian, so it comes closest to a beef steak). But it just takes a bit of imagination and the two can work. Anything can work when 'weird' is the keyword.
I was thinking about some of the names of the grapes (varietals) used in whine. There are hundreds actually. Some of them stir up bizarre images in my mind. For example, the grape 'Mourvedre' just sounds so cool and menacing. I got to thinking what kind of micro story I could build around that name and/or grape. There are so many of these names that just sound, well, weird to an English speaker. Thankfully England was never a big producer of wine back when wine making was young, so we have all these French, Spanish, Italian, Hungarian, Greek, Croatian, etc.. names to play with. So this may become a new section under 'Urbanweird Cities' in the very near future.
FYI, the vineyard in the photo is in the village of Vosne Romanee (Burgundy) and the grapes are Pinot Noir.